It cost US$75 to rearrange our flights to skip out Panama and leave straight for costa rica. After much hesitancy we decided to stay for the 3 days in Panama city. The main business district didnt look half bad when we flew over, modern skyscrappers (sort of) set alongside the bay, could be alright. After being way up in the Andes the heat was a bit of a shocker. The weather in Panama, or at least in the city is very like the caribbean, very hot and humid. The place had a slight caribbean feel to it, with the people and the laid back attitude, and some of the neighbourhoods looked similar to the shanty towns in the caribbean. The central city however is very americanized, with its big banking district, big expensive hotels with red carpeted foyeres and guys waiting to take your bags off you in exchange for a dollar, big brand outlets and shopping malls, and casinos. One side of the city is rundown and the other side is really well funded, its strange to see walking down one avenue how the rundown city emerges into such expensive towering buildings. One night we accidentally walked too far and ended up in the part of town labelled in the guidebook as dangerous after sunset with muggings occuring during daylight also. It was quite obvious from all he strange looks we were getting we went supposed to be there, there was such good photo opportunities as well but I didnt trust getting the digital camera out. The next night we managed to wind up in another shady part of town and the tourist police fearing for us, came and patroled us with guns back to the police station then took us, all 4 of us crammed illegally into the back of a police car to the part of town we were supposed to be in. Very friendly people but a touch worrying, the badges on the shirts had been ripped off and they were leading us down some back streets with guns...
Considering I wasnt keen on visting Panama, I warmed to it a lot. I disliked it at first but I think I was put off when we wound up at some weird hotel with no windows, blood stained sheets and walls, and staying the next room up to some psycho american guy who was travelling with just the clothes on his back, apparently he had been mugged at the border. The city may have been better for someone with lots of money to spend in the shopping outlets. The Panama canal was overrated from what I saw but apparently its one of the main man made sights to see in the world... It would have been nice to some of the other parts of the country, I definitly got a good vibe about the country from the pople I met who had travelled around Panama.
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